solar power for my cabin

New Member

i am new to solar power and like to look into it for charging my battery bank...I need it for modest 12 volt power setup (that i still need to look into)for my 200sq ft cabin in pa. I have 2 6 volt trogen t-105 volt battery that i will be using for power at
periods of time when not using the genreator for our 120 volt power.
we are there on the weekends and a few weeks out of the
year..
1. am i better off looking into 12 volt lights and applinances ? if so what do you recomend..
How large of a pannel do you recomend?
2.were is the best place to get them?
here is a link to my cabin------------

New Member

We have 3 Siemans 75 watt panels charegeing a fork lift battery. We use a 3,000 watt inverter. The lights are compact flourescents in standard light bulb sockets.
The fridge is a bar unit. Stay away from frost free, it's a power hog.

:disapprove: The down side is we were there all last October. The sun shone for 3 days.

:approve: I see a wind mill in the near future. Probably an Air X... that looks about right. The cost is a bit less then solar and the wind blows day or night. Might be something to consider.

New Member

thanks again;;;i TOOK some info that you guys gave me and i found out that i can get away with 50-80 watt panel..(if i was in full sun)since i am in some what shade one outfit said if i go larger (120 watt)it would compinsate for the shade...
what do you guys think....
i like to go solar but dont wont to waste my money on a system that i cant get anything out of...
ant

New Member

One thing you learn about solar real quick.. shade is death. You can be chargeing away at 15 amps one day, the next your down to 10. The sun is shineing so whats up??? Haze, haze can make a huge difference, shade is even worse. In the winter time, shadow from a tree with no leaves on it can drop our output by 20 to 40% depending on sun angle, outside temerature, ice crystals and all sorts of stuff.

:clown: So, avoid shade ,,, and make sure you have a charge controller in that system if you operate it unattended. The battery will boil on a sunny day.

New Member

thank you all for your replys.....
after all the reading i have been doing the last few weeks it seems like that my site is not a candidate for solar ....to much shade..i hate to invest the money into a system that i am only getting 20% out of.....
BUT MAYBE I AM WRONG.... my heart was set on solar.....
i think one of my problems is the charger that i use to charge my batt. bank. it's a sears charger and it seems to take a long time to charge them.
i was looking at a IOTA DLS 55 to charge my 2 t-105's . any of you have any input on that charger?